Sundae Worship

Once a month we get together with our friends and have a family worship time outside.  We spend that time praying, singing, and sharing what the Lord is doing in our lives.  The kids feel like they are welcome to share as well. 

I love this time of worshipping with the whole family.  The kids can range in age from baby to teens.  It’s a little noisier this way, but I don’t think God tells us anywhere that we have to be quiet and sit still in order to praise Him.

After our worship, we always visit and play until it gets dark.  This month, our friend wanted to take the playing part to the next level…or ten levels!  We had a giant ice cream fight.   FUN!

It started with two teams and two tables full of buckets of cheap ice cream and toppings.  The teams had a relay race.  They had to run to the table, do a push up, and grab any one item off the table to run back to their sundae bowl (kiddie pool).  I was cracking up at the little girls who would stand at the table trying to decide what they wanted to pick.

Once they had all of their sundae supplies at their pool, they could start building the sundae.

The first team to get all of their toppings on and get the cherry on the top could start the fight.  Once the fighting started, they could both go.  It was nuts!

 

They were putting ice cream down each others’ backs.

 

Here’s my sticky crew.  Bear was done and in Tony’s arms pretty soon after the insanity started.

 

Clean up with the hose was COLD!

 

Family worship nights always ends with watermelon.  Good times!

I’m so thankful God has put these families in our lives.  We pray together, challenge each other, worship together, serve the community together, hang out together, and now throw ice cream at each other.  What next?

It’s Too Easy

Why has it taken so long for me to do this?  Making my own chicken stock always seemed like something only professional chefs do.  I’ve done it before on the stovetop and I didn’t think the results were worth straining the bones out.  I think I got impatient and didn’t let it boil down long enough.

Well…not anymore!

I started roasting my own chicken for dinner and then I just throw the carcass in the crockpot with some garlic cloves, sage, bay leaves, rosemary, and thyme.  Cover it with water and let it cook all night long on low.

When I woke up this morning, my house smelled incredible!  I wanted chicken soup for breakfast even though it’s 500 degrees here today. 

Seriously.

I would do this even if it was only to make my house smell good.  No more Glade plug-ins for our family!  The yummy, rich, homemade chicken stock goodness is just a bonus.  That and the fact that it is so much healthier and cheaper than buying stock in a can.

I wish you could smell the picture above.  It probably looks gross, but the smell is amazing!

I can’t keep this jewel to myself.  I have to share it and tell everyone to do this themselves.  You can do it!  Your nose will thank me! 

Coffee Anyone?

We have VBS this week at our church and Tate’s group was challenged to use $5 as seed money to raise money for the Acuna, Mexico missions.  He thought about a few options, but then got really excited about selling Gobena coffee to the moms and dads dropping their kids off at VBS. 

The sign he made says, “You can help in 2 ways”, “Buy a cup of coffee and the money will go to Acuna missions”, and “Go to www.gobena.org and buy coffee to help orphans”.  Then, we made flyers to hand out with information about Gobena and how to order their awesome coffee.

He made $15 to give to Acuna (which was pretty remarkable, considering we were selling hot coffee in June in Texas) and he helped spread the word about buying Gobena coffee.  He was excited about combining the two good causes.  Our pastor, who orders coffee for the church, also picked up a flyer to check it out.  Yay!

Gobena uses 100% of their profit to help orphans all over the world.  And, the coffee is all organic.  It’s really not that much more than what I would pay at the grocery store and I’m buying coffee anyway.  I would much rather spend a little more, knowing the profit is going to such a great cause, instead of buying some executive at the bigger coffee companies a vacation home in Maui.

 

 

Ellie was excited about sticking around to help out, too.  Good job, Tate and Ellie!

Time to Workout Again

I’ve been feeling a bit unmotivated to work out lately.  That hasn’t paired well with my tendency to eat when I’m stressed.  hmmm.  I think I’ve been really stressed lately. :)

The treadmill routine wasn’t getting me excited about getting back in the game.  So – I found a new treadmill.  Right outside my door.

And, I love it!  We live on a private road and one of my dearest friends lives next door and she’s been training joining me.  It’s been great because with her, I run longer than I would by myself.  And, she makes me run sprints in the section of sand that I almost have to put my truck in 4 wheel drive to get through.  yeah – I wouldn’t do that on my own.  Here’s that section. 

The weather has been so beautiful in the mornings.  As long as I’m done by 8am.  After that, it’s just too hot.  Remember - I live in Texas.

And look – it comes with childcare:

 

The only downside is so much of the road ends up in my mudroom. 

Yes, I did just put a picture of a pile of dirt on my blog.  Bear was quite confused and kept asking me why I was taking a picture of our dirt. 

I love living out here in the country, but I seriously sweep huge piles of dirt up every day.  If you come to my house, you will probably think I never clean my floors, but I really do.  The dirt is just faster than me.

It won’t be for long though.

I’ve been working out!

Waiting Again

Well, we haven’t heard an official word on if we passed court or not, but our case worker was pretty sure we had not.  She was only able to speak briefly to Almaz in Ethiopia.  We are thinking if an abandonment case had passed, Almaz would think that was big enough to remember in their short conversation.

So, we are just waiting. 

Patiently, waiting.

And, praying.

For patience to wait. :)

God is so awesome though.  He brought my best friend and her family all the way from Georgia to stay with me the night we had court.  He knew I needed a distraction, and it worked.  Thank you, Lord!